2/22 Fred's AMPS=294;+5=175;+9=164

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Kathleen and Fred

Kathleen and Fred

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Since this is just about he same as 2/21, I kept the same 0.8u amount of ProZinc.
He's doing fine - perking up some, taking walks outside briefly, playing some, sleeping mostly, eating well.
May not be able to be home for mid-am tests but hope to be back for +5 or +6.
Thanks,
 
Re: 2/22 Fred's AMPS=294

Looks good! Looks like Fred is at 175 at +5. If you have an opportunity can you get a +6 or +7? I'm wondering if he'll go a bit lower yet.
 
Re: 2/22 Fred's AMPS=294

Couldn't test 'til now. Went down to 164 at 4:30 (which was +9.5). Will test/shoot again at 7pm (EST). Used to test/shoot at 6:30am, but wasn't always on time. Trying to transition to 7AM/PM. Is that OK?
Fred had a long walk around our property today. First time since all the cold and snow. Hope that helps. We were both out of shape!!
 
Forgot most important thing....if #'s are still going down at PMPS should I stall for 30 min until they start to go back up? Can he be fed at regular time, or does that have to wait, too? He really bugs me when it's dinner time. I'm still not too clear how the food affect the numbers, but I suspect it sends them up and I don't want to upset the system.

If his #'s are up to low 200's, do you advise .8u again, as this morning?

Thanks,
 
I'm wondering if he continued to go down at +6 or +7 and is on his way back up now.

If it looks like he's still going down at PMPS, you may want to try stalling to see which direction he's going. You'll want to withhold food during the 30 minutes or so that you're waiting to re-test. Feeding will artificially raise the BG reading for purposes of determining whether he's high enough to shoot.

I'm thinking I like that 0.8 if he's generally in the mid-200's to low 300's. :smile: I should be on around your PMPS time.
 
There it is....271. Since he was under 300 and had been in 100's most all day, I opted for .8u. Hope that's OK. Would you have gone with 1.0?
I'll only be able o test at +2 tonight. And, probably won't be able to get mid-cycle tests tomorrow -- all day meeting.
We'll do what we can to get back to more testing on Monday.

Thanks,
 
My personal opinion? Anytime you can't be there to monitor, go conservative with the dose. It'll keep them from going too high, while being safe when you aren't around.

I think you did fine personally. :thumbup
 
I think the 0.8 is great for this pre-shot. :smile: Thus far he's getting pretty good nadirs, without going too low, and you're getting really good data. :smile:

Just to give you an idea what I'm generally looking at in trying to figure out how well a dose is working, and in trying to figure out a sliding scale:

How low is the nadir? It looks like Fred was in the mid-100's and maybe a bit lower between +5 and +9. I personally generally "aim" for a nadir around 100 or just a little lower. I don't usually "aim" for much lower than that so as to allow a little bit of breathing room, especially if I can't monitor pretty closely. If you're seeing 50's around nadir, that's probably a little close for comfort unless you've got a lot of data to know that your kitty isn't going to drop any further and/or are testing very frequently.

So if you look at today's AM cycle, with a pre-shot of approximately 300, Fred got somewhere between 150 and 200 points of "drop" between pre-shot and nadir on a dose of 0.8. If your pre-shot had been 200, that 0.8 might have dropped him a hair too much for comfort.

Kitties "bounce" as a safety mechanism. So, if a cat's body senses that the blood glucose is dropping too low, it will release glucose and counter-regulatory hormones that show up on your meter as a big spike in BG. This often shows up as a high pre-shot number or it can also be high flat numbers for a whole cycle. Bouncing isn't a "bad" thing per se, but for some kitties, if you can even them out a bit, while still getting good nadirs, it can help reduce the bouncing and numbers that are all over the place.

Does that make sense?
 
I'll try to remember that.

I have a question about my needles. I got the shortest and sharpest ones so it wouldn't hurt Fred so much. But do you think they go in far enough? I pull up his skin, then release when plunging. It must be going in, but his skin & fur seems thick sometimes. Is there any danger of it no going in?
 
On bouncing, I should also add that a bounce doesn't necessarily mean that BG went too low. Many, if not most, kitties will sometimes bounce from safe normal numbers that they just aren't used to seeing, so their liver and pancreas panic, and release the glucose and counter-regulatory hormones in response. So, essentially, there's warranted bouncing, where blood glucose got too low for safety, and unwarranted bouncing, where kitty just saw a safe number that it just wasn't used to seeing.
 
Kathleen and Fred said:
I have a question about my needles. I got the shortest and sharpest ones so it wouldn't hurt Fred so much. But do you think they go in far enough? I pull up his skin, then release when plunging. It must be going in, but his skin & fur seems thick sometimes. Is there any danger of it no going in?
Click to expand...

We use the short needles too. I know some people will shave a small area to be able to more easily see that the needle is going in. There's no "danger" to it not going in, other than the frustration of a fur shot. I should add that you never re-shoot if you think you got a fur shot. There's no way to know for certain how much insulin went in.
 
That makes me feel better - thanks.

This "bounce" thing is still a mystery to me. But I've probably been through it before and just didn't know it. Fred survived!

Will weight reduction help his numbers to regulate, or should I expect better numbers with just exercise? Probably a combo. Anyway, my dream is get him OTJ....but at his age, that may just be silly. We'll just keep trying.

Thanks,
 
Fred was 304 at +3, which means (to me) that the Prozinc either had not kicked in from PM shot or I didn't shoot enough. It's a close number to 271 (PMPS), which could be interpreted as just a flat line. But, I'm wondering if I should have given 1.0 instead of .8?

If his numbers hold true, he should be coming down through the night and back up again for the AMPS. If he's near 300, I think I should shoot 1.0, but I won't be around for mid-day testing. So, would you think .8 would be more reasonable? Nevertheless, we'll have to wait for morning. Just wish he had a more predictable curve.

See you back here tomorrow!
 
The 304 is pretty close to his PMPS. I still think the .8 was a good shot. :smile: My thinking is this, and this might be a little more conservative, but maybe between 250-325 or so, go with .8u, and maybe try 1u if he's above 325 or so. He's really close to a good dose at that 0.8 I think. :smile: If he's under 250, I might go 0.6 and see what happens.
 
I can so relate to wishing for something predictable! Fred is certainly more predictable than my Lucian.

I think your doing well and, as Jen said, need to be a tad cautious just because you won't be able to monitor. When you are for sure going to be there, you might try 1.0 just to see how he reacts at that dose with those numbers, would be good for your data, which you can never have too much of.
 
Kathleen and Fred said:
Will weight reduction help his numbers to regulate, or should I expect better numbers with just exercise? Probably a combo. Anyway, my dream is get him OTJ....but at his age, that may just be silly. We'll just keep trying.

Thanks,
Click to expand...

I missed this. :) From what I've read, excess fat can contribute to insulin resistance, so reducing fat is thought to lower insulin needs. I don't think it's silly to dream of Fred going OTJ at all. :smile:
 
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